Ludwig exhaled sharply, shaking his head. “I’d like to,” he admitted, “but I’m tapped out…”
Van Dijk arched a brow. “No mana, I would guess?”
“Yes,” Ludwig replied.
Van Dijk took a moment to consider before speaking. “Do you even realize what you just did?”
“I tried to mimic your spell, I suppose I failed,” Ludwig replied.
Van Dijk scoffed. “That much is obvious,” he said bluntly. “In mimicking my spell, yes, you failed. But what you did wasn’t a failure—it was something different”
With a casual flick of his wrist, Van Dijk snapped his fingers, summoning a swirl of deep, abyssal black flames that coiled around his palm. They burned without flickering, steady and unnatural, as if feeding off something more than just magic.
“My Black Flame,” Van Dijk began, “is drawn from my darkest emotions—wrath, fury, madness, despair. The very essence of suffering, refined into a weapon. It is as dark as the abyss because my experiences fuel it. But you… you don’t have those memories, those wounds. You haven’t lived long enough, nor have you endured the kind of suffering necessary to produce something like this.” Van Dijk began explaining.
Ludwig was silent, this felt strange to him. Van Dijk spoke of trauma and despair like they were ingredients in a recipe, essential for the creation of power. And yet, despite the weight of his words, his face betrayed nothing. There was no sadness, no anguish—only cold detachment.
“As for you,” Van Dijk continued, eyeing Ludwig with scrutiny, “you’ve been ‘alive’ for what? Seven, eight days?” He smirked. “Well, ‘alive’ isn’t quite the right term, is it?”
“I suppose not,” Ludwig muttered.
“If you want to wield something as powerful as the Black Flame, you’ll need to suffer accordingly,” Van Dijk said matter-of-factly. “But you don’t have a past life to draw from. You have no long years of regret, no history of pain to fuel it. And yet…” He trailed off, studying Ludwig intently. “Yet, you managed to create something entirely different. Something even I cannot use.”
Ludwig had a feeling he knew exactly what Van Dijk was talking about.
“You mean fear?” Ludwig asked.
“Fear,” Van Dijk echoed, tilting his head slightly. “Yes… but not just any fear. What you displayed in your spell wasn’t instinctual hesitation or a fleeting terror—it was raw, undiluted fear. Absolute fear.” His crimson eyes narrowed. “Was it the fear of death?”
Ludwig hesitated, then gave a slow nod.
“Incredible,” Van Dijk mused, rubbing his chin. “To be able to channel an emotion that potent into magic… that is praiseworthy. But something doesn’t add up.”
“What is it, master?” Ludwig asked.
“For someone like you,” Van Dijk said, crossing his arms, “who has already died once, your fear of death should have been nullified. You’ve experienced it. You know what’s beyond that threshold. If anything, dying and coming back should have made you immune to it. And more importantly…” His voice dipped slightly. “You’re undead. Fear should be nonexistent to you. Even the strongest intimidation magic or skill should mean nothing to you. So I’ll ask again…” His eyes locked onto Ludwig’s. “Where did that emotion come from?” It was too raw for an undead to produce…” Van Dijk said.
Ludwig decided to tell his master, “It wasn’t mine,” Ludwig said.
Van Dijk’s expression darkened. “Explain.”
“It wasn’t my emotion,” Ludwig said as he pulled his lantern from the side of his belt and showed it to Van Dijk, “It belonged to one of the trapped souls here.” He said.
Van Dijk reached out, his fingers attempting to grasp the lantern—only for them to pass straight through. He clicked his tongue in mild annoyance but made no further attempt to touch it.
“So, you can contain souls in that thing,” Van Dijk muttered.
“They also empower me,” Ludwig said.
“To what extent?” Van Dijk asked.
“As much as my ability allows it, the more souls the lantern has inside it, the stronger I become, and I can use the emotions of the souls trapped in it to increase my own power. Be it strength, or agility, or even my mind.”
“Condition?” Van Dijk asked.
“I have to be the one to kill them,” Ludwig said. “I can’t just take souls from those I didn’t personally defeat.”
“Limitations?” Van Dijk asked.
“None,” Ludwig answered flatly.
He didn’t tell Van Dijk about the return by death function. Deep down, he felt that it would be a mistake if he were to tell him that very ability. But other than that, since Deus Necros didn’t intervene it meant he didn’t care.
“That’s far too deep in the dark magic territory. though it’s given by something divine,” that part was said hushedly, “But the people would definitely identify it as Dark Magic… the gallows would welcome you if you were to reveal this to anyone else…”
Ludwig realized the seriousness of his situation and nodded to his master.
Van Dijk thought for a moment and said, “Back to our topic, You can use the emotions of the souls in your lantern, and can use those souls themselves to empower yourself… no wonder he said that you’re someone who can solve my issue,” he said the last part rather quietly.
Ludwig caught that muttered remark, but he chose not to comment.
After a beat, Van Dijk straightened. “Regardless,” he said, waving a hand, “though I’d love to conduct further tests on that lantern, something tells me I wouldn’t be allowed—or I simply wouldn’t find anything useful. Let’s move on.”
Ludwig nodded, and the two resumed their journey through the ruins. As they walked, Van Dijk spoke again.
“The effect you had on your spell—it was weak and incredibly unrefined. But that’s to be expected. It’s a start.” He glanced at Ludwig. “Fear is, technically, the strongest human emotion. Nay, it is the ultimate emotion.”
Ludwig listened carefully.
“Even I tried my best to harness it and add it to my flame, but it was not possible. I have yet to truly die to experience that terror, and without feeling it first, it’s impossible to use it. So I’m using the second best thing. Rage and despair. Close enough though, and it’s powerful enough, but their ability should be different from yours. My emotions applied to my spell make my flame undying, one simply can’t snuff the raging flames of one who was wronged. But you, your flame should have a different effect if it uses Fear, you’ll need to experience this once we get back to the academy. I’ll help supply you with mana potions so you can steadily use that flame. For now, let’s get our focus up a bit, because we’re getting closer to our goal.”
Ludwig nodded to his master, they were here to find the Gluttonous Death after all, though Ludwig had no idea if that was even a good idea or not.
The Gluttonous Death was connected to the werewolf. It was also one of the Usurpers of Death that Ludwig had to eliminate to fulfill his quest for Necros. And there were seven of them.
That alone was enough to make Ludwig uneasy.
“Right there,” Van Dijk suddenly said, gesturing ahead with a tilt of his head.
Ludwig followed his gaze and saw the remnants of structures, half-submerged in the bog. Crumbling stone walls, fallen pillars—the same kind of architecture they had encountered before.
“Tibarian buildings,” Ludwig muttered.
“Close enough,” Van Dijk replied. “But more importantly, that’s our next teleportation hub. We’ll need to use it.”
it.”